“If we don’t hang together, we will surely hang separately”

Quoting Benjamin Franklin at the ITB 2030 SDG Countdown Forum, Professor Geoffrey Lipman, President of the International Coalition of Tourism Partners (ICTP), called for a new look at the Silos in the Travel & Tourism sector. He congratulated ECOTRANS and its members for 25 years of committed focus on sustainability and pledged the support of ICTP to a closer collaboration around the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).

Lipman also commented in his capacity as co-founder of SUNx (Strong Universal Network) – a Climate Resilience program for the sector – noting that “Unless we fix the Climate Change SDG (13) it will fix us” and lambasting the Trump administration’s “isolated and incomprehensible retreat from for the universally-agreed Paris Climate Accord.”

He concluded by reflecting on the vision of his mentor Maurice Strong, who inspired the world to embrace sustainable development over half a century ago, arguing that we need to focus on the eXistential nature of Climate Change. Lipman urged the broader Travel & Tourism community to bake the Paris Climate targets into every initiative “to stop our grandkids from freezing or frying.”

The 2015 Paris Accords and SDGs launched a 3-decade, low-carbon transformation, recognizing “Climate Change is existential.” This is the rationale for SUN x – the Strong Universal Network. Under the initial guidance of our friend and mentor, the late Maurice Strong – sustainable development pioneer – we are creating an eXchange for learning, innovation, and resilience through Impact-Travel – measured: green: 2050 proof – with a growing cadre of graduate-climate champions, supported by Maurice Strong Legacy Scholarships (Geoffrey Lipman & Felix Dodds, Co-founders).